


About Today

by nowsaguaro



Category: One Day at a Time (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Love Confessions, One Shot, Sobriety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-12-18 05:29:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18243323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nowsaguaro/pseuds/nowsaguaro
Summary: Schneider celebrates a milestone with... another one.





	About Today

After dinner, Schneider pops by the apartment, his face reading strangely pleasant. “¡Hola Alvarezes!”

All four of them turn their heads to him but, expecting him to share whatever annoying news he clearly has, they don’t say anything.

He regally puts a hand up in the air and brings it down to indicate Penelope and, in a terrible British accent, asks, “might I request a private audience with the lady?” 

The room stays quiet. 

Penelope scrunches her face at his odd playfulness. “.........what.”

Elena looks at him skeptically, “yeah, Schneider you are bringing a real weird energy in here.”

_ “Dios mío, guys! I’m just trying something out!  _ Have some whimsy.” He claps his hands together and looks back at Penelope. “Pen, can I talk to you for a segundo?”

Catching his shift in tone, she quickly agrees and pulls him into the kitchen.

“Oooh, I was imagining somewhere more private.”

“Please, Schneider, you’re freaking me out! For a bunch of reasons.” Penelope says while pulling him down the hall to her bedroom. As she catches her family’s coordinated eyebrow raise, she revises her plan, “oh,  _ relax _ , I’m just putting my shoes on!”

And she instead pulls him out into the hall, shoes in hand. 

“Can you just give me a heads up if you’re gonna murder me, Schneider, cause you’re being all kinds of weird right now.”

Schneider blinks his eyes nervously and sticks his hands in his pockets.  _ This will be harder than I thought. _ He looks shiftily at the door and then over his shoulder. Penelope catches this.

“Seriously?” She asks in an impatient and monotone voice. “Alright, let’s go for a walk, but this will be our last location change, you diva.”

\--

 

While they leave the building in the direction of the park, she notices he’s officially lost all of the flare - albeit frantic - that he had moments ago. Trying to get him to stay present in the conversation, she probes, “in case you  _ are _ going to murder me, I’m taking you right to the park while the sun goes down. So I’m really doing half your job for ya.”

“I’m not going to murder you.” He finally laughs out. Now that they are completely alone, he stops before they reach the end of their block and pivots to face her. He puts his hands on her shoulders to square her towards him. “Okay.”

Penelope considers making another joke, maybe about how she feels like he’s about to take her passport photo, or maybe about this all being incredibly dramatic, but she is so in the dark about the topic that she’s not sure if his behavior is actually out of proportion. At this point, it could be a  _ diagnosis _ , or it could be something much more  _ Schneider _ , like a surprise party.

“Pen, I want to... tell you something important. And you have to bear with me.”

She nods and brushes up her shirt to stick her hands in her jeans’ back pockets.

“I get these… dreams.” He looks her in the eyes a little too long and nearly loses his nerve. “This is so weird to say out loud.”

“I get nightmares, too. I know how much they can affect you,” she offers.

“They’re not nightmares, though. Not really. It always starts where I’m looking straight on at myself.” He moves his hands and swallows restlessly while he speaks, like he’s daring himself to stick to the script of something he practiced. “I’m sitting somewhere I don’t recognize and I’m  _ old _ . It’s a whole  _ ghost of Christmas future _ type sitch. Very Dickens-y.” 

She gets a pang in her chest as she considers what his loneliness has done to his imagination.

He goes on. “It’s years from now. And it’s dull. and  _ sad. _ and silent. And sometimes–” he pauses to remove his glasses and to wipe a big hand down his face “– it goes in different  _ ways _ but always sort of has the same ending.” He puts on his glasses again to look at her. “Not the kind of ending to a dream that you see, but the kind that you feel.” He smacks his gut for emphasis.

Penelope knows exactly what he means by that but is still flipping through ideas of what point he’s making.

“I see that old man. And I want to do whatever I can to not become him. Even if it’s terrifying.” He swallows. “And so… I don’t want to regret not telling you that, that I can’t imagine a time where I wake up and you’re more than a floor away from me.”

Her mouth hangs a little open at this, but she won’t interrupt.

“Pen, I’m so, uh," he shakes his head, "so stupid in love with you.”

Okay, her brain is officially sputtering out.

Then he goes unrehearsed. “That feeling I get when Lydia tells me I’m family – that warm frog in my throat – this isn’t like that. Every time I see you in my doorway, or... when I go downstairs and you’re the only one home…” He presses his palms into his temples and squeezes his eyes shut to not look at her. “I feel this buzz from my stomach all the way to my fingertips. Like I’m learning where my body ends for the first time.” He smiles into himself, recognizing that he’s feeling it right now.

Penelope steps forward to hug him; he’s still her very vulnerable friend and he deserves a response even if  _ she _ is at a loss for actual words. He opens his eyes and lets out a shaky breath before closing his arms around her.  _ God, that’s nice. _

He speaks now into the top of her head, “do you ever, um…” his mind trails off when she looks up at him. 

She steps back from him and he feels a chill. “Schneider, should we even be having this conversation before your one year is up? The whole AA no-big-changes rule?”

“That’s the thing.” He reaches into his pocket, “got my one year medallion this morning.” He places it in her hand. 

“Today’s the 24th.” She whispers.

“Today’s the 24th.”

“I’m so proud of you. I knew you would.” She fumbles with the small coin nervously in her hands, not exactly sure what - of all this information - she is supposed to focus on. “I wish I could have been there.”

“You can come for the two year,” Schneider makes a nervous attempt at a charming smile and nudges her with his elbow. His mouth doesn’t fully close, though, while he waits to see if she’ll let the conversation lapse.

She knows this and thinks,  _ so what’re you gonna say to him now, girl? You’re out of material. _

“Y’know,” she starts with some basic truth, with hardly any idea of what else to say, “I don’t know who I would  _ be _ \- who my  _ kids _ would be - if you were more than a floor away.”

Luckily, they are standing in near darkness now, so she can’t see his face flush in uncertain anticipation. Penelope moves into him and places the coin back in his pocket. “My annoying super.” She says the words breathlessly, which curbs the distance they’d create on any other day. She buries her face in his cool cotton shirt and inhales deeply, calmly, while he closes his arms around her again. He smells like essential oils, lavender.  _ Oh damn _ . She closes her eyes and leans her face more into the soft fabric against his hard chest.  _ Oh damn. _ And makes the impulsive decision to kiss it.

Schneider can’t quite be sure if he felt that right, if she actually did put her lips against his chest, but he crouches and leans just slightly so her head fits more in the crook of his neck.

She gains a little more confidence now - though she is certainly not worried about his reaction, she’s concerned about the fallout if she jumps into this. When she feels him lean closer to her, she wraps her arms, which were just pressed to his stomach, up to over his shoulders, and tilts her head up. She can see his pulse in his neck. And she cautiously presses her lips to it.

He turns a shaky gasp into a deep inhale, and both their eyes close.

When Penelope lays her lips down again, she’s found his jaw, and he moves into it to kiss her temple. Then they reach each other’s cheeks.

Both their eyes open when they align their foreheads together, only to look at the other’s lips. Their mouths both hang open with loud breathing.

He moves his hands from her hips to hold the sides of her face. 

And they both cautiously meet in the middle, going completely still.

 

Penelope leans back in Schneider’s arms and looks up at him with a furrowed brow and no smile on her face at all. “Ah, shit.”  _ (CoñoCarajoPutaMierda.) _ She peels her hands away from him to put them over her eyes.

His heart falls to his stomach.  _ Mistake. Mistake. _ “What?” He whispers into her forehead, before she presses her face back into his chest. 

“I think I’m in love with you, too.” She’s mostly muffled, but Schneider hears enough to not make her repeat it. He briefly wonders if he’s developed arrhythmia.

When she pulls back again, she flicks her eyes back and forth, looking like she’s scanning over all of their conversations from the past 5 years. “I guess I just ignored it, let it be in the background.”

“Ha, that’s what I tried, too.” He raises his hand for a high five, “big fail! Am I right?” He watches her pause and contort her face into a  _ yikes _ expression.

“Oh no.” Penelope covers her mouth, “oh no. Oh no. This is  _ baaad. _ ”

“Okay, first of all, I have  _ feelings _ ,” Schneider smiles and brings her in for a one-armed hug. “Secondly, what’s so terrible? You wondering what Lydia and the kids will think? But what actually changes?  _ Other than a whole lot of you and me doin’ it. _ ”

She goes into panic mode and paces in a small radius. “That’s the thing, Schneider! You don’t just lift right out after this all,” she waves her hand between them vaguely, “y’know…” she makes an explosion noise.

“What if there’s no ‘after’–” he makes a smaller explosion noise, “for this? Pen,” he grabs her hand, “what if it’s  _ goooood _ ?”

One thing about Schneider’s often annoying naivete is that he is capable of some deeply genuine smiles.  _ The emotional embodiment of dogs in wigs. _ She can’t help but smile back with fake reluctance. She makes a dramatic eye roll through her beaming smile, “okay, fine.”

“Yes, I  _ love _ a good ‘okay, fine’ from a woman!” He tugs her lightly by the bottom of her shirt back to kiss him.

“Well I’m definitely not getting tired of  _ that _ .” She laughs, now just at the situation.  _ Weird. Weirdweirdweird. _

 

* * *

 

Back at the apartment, Penelope and Schneider slip in and close the door behind them as softly as possible, trying not to attract any more attention to a situation they’re not sure how to talk their way out of.

“So, Lupita? Guat's the ñews? Did ESchneider win more tickets to The Lion King?”

“No, Mami,” she proudly addresses the room, “he’s been sober one year today.” She tries to platonically pat him on the shoulder but overcompensates and thumps him on the back like a basketball coach. 

Everyone in the room lights up and runs over to surround him in a hug, all but pushing Penelope out of the way. She bites the inside of her cheek and watches how happy he is. He looks up from the family swarm and catches her eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> I own none of the One Day at a Time characters
> 
> I think the show really has a chance of staying on! If you follow a bit of Gloria Calderón Caldett's online presence, she keeps me up in hope haha


End file.
